Hannity's Criticism Of MSNBC Hides His Own Network's History Of Offensive Commentary

Fox News' Sean Hannity sharply criticized MSNBC for an offensive tweet aimed at conservatives by MSNBC's Twitter account that drew a threat of boycott from Republican officials. But Hannity's demagoguery of MSNBC hid his own network's extensive history of offensive commentary.

On January 30, Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Reince Priebus announced a boycott of MSNBC by RNC officials after the network posted an offensive tweet, which was later deleted, which stated "Maybe the rightwing will hate it, but everyone else will go awww: the adorable new #Cheerios ad w/ biracial family." After Priebus demanded an apology and corrective action from MSNBC President Phil Griffin, he apologized for the tweet and fired the employee responsible for writing it later that day.

That night, Hannity hosted Priebus, who criticized MSNBC for its "intolerance" but credited MSNBC's president for quickly responding to his concerns. During the interview, Hannity aired a montage of controversial clips of MSNBC personalities that spurredotherapologies, telling Priebus: "You've shown a lot of patience up until this point. ... Let's play a little montage for you and remind you of some of the things that were said even prior to this incident."

But this selective outrage hides a history of inflammatory rhetoric and race baiting by Fox News. Prominent among Fox's numerous examples is former host Glenn Beck calling President Obama a "racist" who has "a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture" in July 2009. In contrast to how MSNBC handled this offensive tweet, Beck's statement was defended by Hannity himself, by Rupert Murdoch, the CEO of Fox's parent company, and according to a new book, Fox News CEO Roger Ailes privately agreed with Beck.

Fox's more recent racial commentary has been nearly as outrageous. In 2013, Fox's race baiting machine stoked fears of an all-out race war erupting because of President Obama's policies. Fox personalities blamed shooting victim Trayvon Martin for his own death because he was wearing a hoodie and distorted the black crime rate to incite fears that blacks were dangerous. Many other Fox personalities have made awful racial comments over the years.

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Thomas Bishop is an Associate Research Director at Media Matters and holds a M.A from the University of Arkansas and a B.A. in Political Science. He also currently serves as an Army Reserve officer, serving one tour of duty in Afghanistan and receiving the Bronze Star.

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